Nov 2022 – Present · 3 yrs 4 mos · Bangalore Urban · On-site

• As the Principal and Partner at SHRP, I work closely with CEOs and CHROs in three areas
• 1. Strategy
• 2. People
• 3. OKRs to get things done
• I work by partnering closely with the business leaders and help build systems for businesses.

Apr 2022 – Sep 2024 · 2 yrs 5 mos

• A B2B restaurant tech startup invested by Peak XV (earlier Sequoia) and Tiger with presence across 7 countries and 35000+ restaurants and 200+ cities
• Talent Acquisition
• Scaled from 100 to 300+ employees across India, UK, MENA.
• Saved INR 2.28 cr in costs by leveraging RPOs, student interns and referrals.
• Implemented ATS after a thorough RFP process that examined 14 providers.
• Performance and Org alignment
• Led an extremely effective OKR implementation alongwith a Founder.
• Implemented two OKR tools for tracking and reviewing OKRs.
• Identified and implemented tools for transitioning annual appraisals and ran the performance management cycle with increments
• Offsites at leadership and org level to increase alignment and drive culture.
• Townhalls and All hands channels of communication to ensure the alignment to OKRs was transparent and widely informed.
• Culture & change
• Created a unique People Ecology Survey from first principles based on Sumantra Ghoshal's "smell of the place" alongwith the concept of Discretionary Effort, to build a respectful and caring culture.
• Introduced the People Power Index to transparently provide visibility on how they are performing, to people managers.
• Used the Competing Values Framework to identify the dominant culture and the aspired culture during a leadership change during an org design intervention.
• Trained managers to become performance coaches over a structured learning journey.
• Capacity and Capability
• Hired and scaled four MBA freshers to manage the entire P&C department.
• Using RPOs for hiring ensured adequate staffing levels, with minimal job losses when hiring scaled down.
• M&A
• Supported the post acquisition integration of US company OrderMark including contracts and reduction in force.

Dec 2019 – Apr 2022 · 2 yrs 4 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• The theme for the two Covid years was cost optimization and ensuring employee connect in a remote and hybrid context.
• Talent Acquisition
• Managed a 14 member in house recruitment team to scale the company from 200 to 300 employees (both Tech and non tech)
• Organisation Design
• The design of pods for product + tech + analytics + marketing resulted in little to no attrition for two years due to job enrichment and learning opportunities.
• HR Generalist and compliance
• Managed Human Capital through the two years of Covid across 6 locations and 3000+ strength.
• Ensured compliances to labour laws across 7 locations within 6 months of joining.
• Operationalised a liason agency to help business operations run smoothly during Covid times across the 6 locations that we were operating.
• Managed ER issues with no court cases getting registered through a combination of negotiation and compliance adherence.
• Performance Management
• Rebranded and launched the performance management approach that ran without any issues for two years.
• Rewards and Recognition
• Introduced an impactful R&R program across locations to ensure motivation and energy in what was a very demanding work routine (night operations and early morning delivery schedules)
• HR Tech and HRMS
• Transitioned from Qandle to DarwinBox with zero escalations
• Automated workflows including HR request tickets for tracking delivery
• M&A support
• Joined when SuprDaily was an independent company. Moved out on M&A with Swiggy.
• Shut down 5 locations of SuprDaily at the end of the 2.5 years on integration to Swiggy.

Jan 2019 – Dec 2019 · 11 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• Joined the company at a critical stage when it had raised Series A investment and had to scale up fast to ensure first mover advantage in a market filled with competitors (Byjus, Unacademy, Toppr, etc)
• Talent Acquisition
• Deployed a large RPO provider and repurposed operations executives to drive immediate impact in hiring.
• Scaled the company from 150 to 3000+ including tech, product, Feet on street sales, Inside sales, finance and teaching (delivery) talent in six months.
• Hired from both campus and off-campus sources for creating a pool of academic mentors who could then run operations.
• Business vertical leadership
• Led the teachers' vertical that had a large hiring problem which meant that the business model was at stake.
• Solved the problem by rapidly scaling individuals who were stellar in-person teachers/academic mentors into teachers who could teach large cohorts of upto 200 students - with virtual empathy and screen presence. This was critical to business to ensure "1 to many" classes ran and became sustainable as an operating model.
• Broke into the Kota market and hired hand-picked teachers who were extremely good at delivering content to students in the 8th to 12th standard levels.
• Built a strong referral network for teachers in the country.
• Org Design
• Set up a separate Sales HR function to respond to the rapidly changing needs of that side of the organization.
• Compliance
• Ensured compliance on labour laws across locations.
• Implemented the POSH committee in letter and spirit.
• Admin and Facilities
• Took on the task of remodelling an office into studios (8 on a floor) for noiseless broadcasting.
• Shortlisted and opened new offices for a growing team.

Apr 2018 – Dec 2018 · 8 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• The group consisted of interests in Real Estate and Hospitality. Known for ultra premium and well design properties that age gracefully over time, it was led by a founder and his family. At the time of joining, the company needed to urgently scale sales. Distributed workforce across Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.
• Sales ramp up
• Helped solve the sales challenge by restructuring and smart hiring the sales team.
• Hired a sales leader for the real estate wing for the organization.
• Sales moved from 15cr per year to 100cr+ per month over the next eight months due to these initiatives.
• Involved the entire company in sales efforts for special offer days across properties.
• Talent Acquisition
• Ramped up the team by 100 new hires as well as new campus hires.
• Ran a specific program for inducting campus hires.
• Performance Management
• Fine tuned aspects of performance management.
• Closed the compensation cycle on time for the first time in the recent history of the company.
• Recognition
• Was awarded the Founder's award for "living the leadership principles". This was the shortest time in which this award was given to anyone who joined the company.
• Facilities and Admin
• Remodelled the entire office without losing aesthetics.
• Increased seating capacity from 100 to 250 in the same office with a minimal cost of 8 lakhs.
• Improved the canteen facilities.

Jul 2015 – Apr 2018 · 2 yrs 9 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• Led a team of 43 HR professionals located across 17 stores and 8 locations in India. The team helped 2200 employees deliver performance across the country. Key achievements of the tenure were:
• New Stores opened at Hyderbad, Coimbatore and Bengaluru
• LAKSHYA : Redesigned incentive scheme helped drive sales from 87% to 101% YoY in 2016
• SAMMAAN : A R&R scheme achieved giving away 10,000 + awards to 2200 employees in 11 months
• SPRINT : Business centric strategic initiatives on sales and product mix helped Food and Private label achieve highest ever sales
• GUEST : Extremely simple and effective Learning and Development interventions have helped drive customer service, sales promotions and loyalty programs
• FSMP : First time Store Manager Program completed in collaboration with WE School. Created an action learning program including projects. Successfully completed and one participant taking over the next new store in Coimbatore.
• PRAGATI : Sponsored career mobility for 150 front line staff. Enabled with career passports, visas, ‘visiting card’ job descriptions and monthly dialogues. Achieved 97% retention of top talent at grassroots level over one year.
• MAJLIS : Inspired by a concept used by the ruler of Dubai, these are used to mine solutions from employees and build a coaching culture without the jargon. Turnaround in quality scores, spike in Private label sales, high conversion rates in Loyalty programs
• DESPAR competency model : Built from first principles. Six competencies; Developmental Leadership, Empathy, Self Management, Planning, Adaptability, Results. Used for developing 18 store managers and assessing 128 Department Managers
• Presented at SPAR Intl HR Conference at Budapest, Hungary in 2016 to HR leaders from 30 other countries.
• Attrition dropped from 10% + to 4%+ (both monthly) across stores in the period of 18 months and continues to be at those levels from August 2016. Approximately 3.63 crs were saved in 2016-17.

Dec 2011 – Jul 2015 · 3 yrs 7 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• Arresting Attrition : Innovative HR practices on Cloudnine resulted in nurse attrition dropping from 63% to 24% over 18 months and post appraisal mortality dropping from 24% to 1.65%. These were recognized by AIMA in their National Innovators’ Summit in 2014.
• Customer Promise & Values : Worked with the Board of Directors and rolled out a customer promise and values across organization.
• Strategic HR : Implemented the McKinsey 7S model to align HR to drive business outcomes. This won the National HRD Network award in 2014 for Top 2 best HR practices in the country.
• Senior Leadership build : 10 Heads of departments were hired, while the group grew from 2 units to 7 units. My team of 24 professionals consists of a mix of experienced and young high potentials.
• Growth : Facilitated the growth of the organization from a 180+ to a 2400+ workforce, constituted by Clinicians, nursing staff, paramedics, guest relations and support staff.
• Meaningful compensation practices : Market pay – Actual pay resulted in an EVP of 1 cr in 2013-14
• Additional roles:
• From August 2014, led efforts in Business Development at New Markets for Cloudnine. Led a team that is re-looked at experience design at Cloudnine and an implementation of a redesigned set of SOPs, Manager training, systems and processes for the Value Zone.
• From May 2015, managed the Contact centre on Cloudnine.
• At new centres, led a task force for implementing business processes.

Jun 2010 – Dec 2011 · 1 yr 6 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• Supported 75 delivery and business leaders across 7 time zones. Scaled the org unit from 80 to 800
• Turnaround of HR service delivery for sales
• Achieved significant cost savings by implementing a unique fresher hiring program from third tier engineering colleges across India
• Redesigned and implemented policies (awarded $1000)
• Detailed compensation analysis and recommendations to business leading to more realistic compensation structures among job families
• Conceptualized+designed+delivered leadership development, OBLs, and behavioural skill programmes

Apr 2008 – Dec 2009 · 1 yr 8 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• Learning and development scored highest within one year of taking over in the DQ best employer survey in 2009 (Came 7th overall in the country)
• Designed and implemented a HiPo MBA grad development program
• Turnaround in L&D from 53% attendance to 98% attendance across programmes – through a mix of ADDIE element redesigns
• Culture of excellence launch across the Application services organization – included multi modal, multi tool delivery
• Designed and implemented an All India leadership development programme for 300+ individuals across India – included modules of Finance, Performance management, Change management, Coaching for managers and sales for non sales
• Designed and implemented ‘SAMPARK’, an associate reach programme. Designed and implemented HRBP led induction programme

Apr 2006 – Apr 2008 · 2 yrs · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• As business partner executed compensation cycle management, business partnering, satisfaction surveys, skip level meetings, goal matrix and attrition predictability quotient reporting.
• In addition,
• Upskilled a batch of 15 BBM trainees to HR generalists in 3 months
• Member of corporate think tank for Career portal design – included HRD instruments including automated feedback for counselling
• Conceptualization+design+delivery of workshops on Role, managing teams, locus of control, etc.
• Internal HR Learning academy design
• Integrated psychometric tools in the career portal. The career portal won HCL the Aon Hewitt award in 2008-09

Apr 2005 – Apr 2006 · 1 yr · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• Competency mapping for 300 employees
• Performance review and feedback process management
• HR metrics dashboard reporting
• Induction experience turnaround, exit management, employee relations

Jul 2004 – Apr 2005 · 9 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

• Designed the career progression path for Pilots for ATRs and A-320s (Co-pilot → Sr. Co-pilot → Captain)
• Helped finalize allowances for Check pilots, Instructors and Examiners on the A-320 Designed and rolled out induction programmes for different departments & locations
• Revised policies and customised them for different departments
• Training needs analysis and first ever program for Commercial and security staff across bases
• Pilot contracts – standardization, revisions and implementation
• Cabin crew contracts
• Conducted Open houses for engineering teams
• General administration – guest house management for Flight Ops